So last week was my last ever week of being in my twenty's which was kinda sad but at least I spent it in a hot latin american country (hee-hee). As weeks go it was yet another jammed packed and fun filled week which was spent completing the first week of Level 2 spanish and our last week of being at school (big cheer for no more school). Level 2 of spanish school was a real ball buster as our teachers Laura & Maxi kinda refused to speak a word of English. This was particularly frustrating as it could take 20 mins of the teacher drawing, flaying her arms around basically playing charades of guess this word in English. It was kinda exciting though when after twenty mins of this we now knew the word for fork. So not the fastest way of increasing our vocab but never the less we persisted and were given a nice little certificate to congratulate ourselves with, Yippe!!!! All in all the spanish school experience has been worthwhile as we are finding that we can just about get our point across in spanish which is great and will definitely be extremely helpful for the rest of our trip. Just got to remember to keep practising now.

During the week Mark and I went to a wee restaurant called El 22 in Palermo which was recommended to us by Maxi our spanish teacher as a fantastic place to go for "mucho carne". So with his directions in hand we decided to head straight to it to test his recommendation out. Now Palermo is filled with lots of funky resturants and bars and after about 30 mins of walking around trying to find the place (Maxi's directions sucked) we found what looked like a little shabby cafe place, not the height of style of some of the other resturants in the area. So after a bit of debating of whether we wanted to bother we took Maxi's word for it and took a wee plastic chair outside and boy oh boy we were so glad that we did. We preceeded to be presented with three of the juiciest, tastiest steaks ever with a massive plate of patatas fritas with garlic (so blumming tasty). It definitely ranked as one of our favourite meals so far and only came to a measly 80 pesos with tip included (£18). Seriously, EL 22 rocked - love it!

Friday night was spent out with the lovely possie from Spanish school. It was decided that everyone wanted something that didn't involve steak so we opted for a mexican place. It was another lovely evening with the gang who bought me a lovely box of Havana Chocs for my birthday which are the best chocs in Argentina so was really chuffed. It was a lovely way to spent my last evening as a twenty-something.

On Saturday I turned the big 30!!!!!! (OMG - I'm old).

Typically, as it was my b-day, the weather was a bit overcast and muggy so we spent the day chillin going for a nice walk, getting a nice lunch and going to watch George Clooney at the cinema (as it was my b-day so Mark agreed to girlie movie, nice one). The highlight of my birthday however was the meal that we went to at Casa Felix. Casa Felix is basically a home based restaurant run by an Argentinian and his American wife from their home out in the north-east of the city. It's kinda similar to what Jamie Oliver did in his America programme last year.

The couple invite 12 people every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night into their home to try out a five course meal inspired by latin american ingredients and things sourced from their garden. It was recommended to us by Keith from class who went the weekend before. It was a really interesting and different meal set in a lovely environment which we really enjoyed especially the peach and mango piso cocktails to start. Got the recipe to make these little beauties for when I get back home. All in all a lovely way to spend my first day being 30!

called Mark's Deli which does amazing sandwiches and salads (which strangely are particularly hard to find in Buenos Aires) and a wee fairy cake for my b-day which was heaven. So a lovely weekend was had and a great start to my thirty-something years to come!!!!!!!!!

Before I shoot, just a wee note to say thanks for all the lovely emails and birthday wishes sent from back home, as always greatly appreciated!